The subject matter described herein relates to power management, and more particularly to systems to harness the precessional power of a gyroscopic flywheel to generate and/or store power.
A dynamo is a device which is capable of converting mechanical energy to electrical energy and vise-versa. Conventional dynamos comprise a rotating disc which passes one or more magnets through a magnetic field to generate an electrical current. Depending upon the configuration of the dynamo, the electrical current may be direct current or alternating current.
A dynamo is analogous to a gyroscope in the sense that it comprises a disk which rotates about an axis. For this reason, interest has developed in using gyroscopes to store power. However, frictional forces cause the speed of a gyroscope to decay over time, which reduces the utility of a gyroscope as a power storage mechanism. Thus, mechanisms which allow gyroscopes to maintain their momentum may find utility.